The duration of this meteor shower extends from February 14 to April 25. Maximum occurs around March 20 (solar longitude=0 deg), at which time the radiant is located at RA=177 deg, DEC=+11 deg. The maximum ZHR is probably 3-4.

The Beta Leonids were apparently first observed by E. R. Blakeley (Dewsbury), when he plotted five slow meteors from an average radiant of RA=175 deg, DEC=+10 deg during March 16-26, 1895.

Although the Beta Leonids were not widely reported on an annual basis, some sources reveal they were active. In Cuno Hoffmeister's 1948 book Meteorströme, five visual radiants are listed as having been observed during the 1930's. Radiants 1607 and 1623 were detected in 1931. The former radiant was detected on March 19 (solar longitude=357.0 deg), from RA=179 deg, DEC=+8 deg, while the second radiant was observed on March 21 (solar longitude=358.7 deg), from RA=182 deg, DEC=+15 deg. Radiants 2960 and 3108 were both observed 0n March 23, 1933: the former occurring at a solar longitude of 1.0 deg, from RA=187 deg, DEC=+12 deg, while the second occurred from a solar longitude of 0.7 deg, from RA=183 deg, DEC=+10 deg. Finally, radiant 5029 was observed on March 20, 1936 (solar longitude=358.1 deg), from RA=182 deg, DEC=+15 deg.

The Beta Leonids were missed by radio-echo surveys until the 1968-1969 session of the Radio Meteor Project. Zdenek Sekanina determined the shower's duration as extending from February 14 to April 25. He said the nodal passage occurred on March 23.0 (solar longitude=1.9 deg), at which time the radiant was at RA=180.7 deg, DEC=+11.5 deg. Sekanina had referred to this stream as the March Virginids. It should be noted that the nodal passage may have actually occurred earlier than indicated, since the radar equipment was not in operation during March 20-22---the probable date of maximum activity.

The most recent observations of this shower come from members of the Western Australia Meteor Section (WAMS). In 1980, they detected shower meteors during March 14-23. Maximum came on March 19, when the ZHR reached 3.46+/-0.86. The radiant was determined as RA=176 deg, DEC=+15 deg.

A search through the various lists of photographic meteors reveals 14 probable Beta Leonids. The indicated duration is February 24 to April 11. Interestingly, two clusters occur in the data: the first is around March 5-6 (solar longitude=344 deg-345 deg), while the second is around March 18-19 (solar longitude=358 deg-359 deg). These two clusters cause the average orbit to possess a nodal passage date of March 12, at which time the radiant position is RA=168.4 deg, DEC=+12.6 deg. This strange grouping of the data distorts the average radiant position of this shower. The actual position for March 18-19, based on 3 photographic meteors, is RA=173 deg, DEC=+9.7 deg.

The existence of two dates of maximum in the photographic data is difficult to account for. Also difficult to explain is how so many photographic meteors could have been overlooked in the various computerized stream searches conducted during the 1960's and early 1970's. A possible explanation for the latter question is found in one of Bertil-Anders Lindblad's 1971 computerized searches. He had identified 24 meteors as belonging to the Delta Leonids of February. The Author finds that several of the Beta Leonid meteors of early March were included in Lindblad's data. By comparing the orbits of these two streams it can be seen that they do have distinct differences.

The Author has plotted the radio meteors, photographic meteors and available visual radiants and determined the daily motion of this shower as +0.9 deg in RA and -0.4 deg in DEC.

Orbit

Two orbits are given below. The radio-meteor orbit was determined by Zdenek Sekanina after analyzing the data gathered during the 1968-1969 session of the Radio Meteor Project. The photographic orbit was determined by the Author from 14 photographic meteors found in various papers. From the raw data, two of the 14 photographic meteors actually possess perihelion distances and eccentricities very close to that given for the radio meteor orbit.

	Radio-echo	Photographic
Argument of Perihelion () [J2000]	256.4 deg.	252.7 deg.
Ascending Node () [J2000]	2.6 deg.	353.5 deg.
Inclination (i) [J2000]	2.4 deg.	3.7 deg.
Perihelion Distance (q)	0.853 AU	0.728 AU
Eccentricity (e)	0.238	0.628
Semimajor axis (a)	1.119 AU	1.955 AU

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